Fox's New Hire: GOP Official Tasked With Winning VA For Romney

On its website, the Republican Party of Virginia's 2012 coordinated committee states that it will "defeat President Obama, Tim Kaine, and congressional Democrats" across the battleground state by raising money and rallying the grassroots. It can now count on an official Fox News platform for further help in those efforts.

Fox News has hired Pete Snyder, the chairman of Virginia Victory 2012, as its newest on-air contributor. Snyder made his first official appearance yesterday on Fox & Friends, where he repeated Republican platitudes about President Obama and his policies.

Snyder's hiring by the network doesn't appear to have affected his Republican Party position, as Virginia Victory still lists him as its chairman and his Twitter bio states he's a "Fox News Contributor, Chairman of Virginia Victory 2012."

Snyder's capital investment firm announced the hiring in a press release, which quoted him as saying he's "long admired Roger Ailes and his pioneering vision and look forward to working with him and the entire Fox News team during the most important election of our lifetimes." The release added that "Virginia is considered by many political observers to be the #1 battleground state in the upcoming presidential election, and Snyder is overseeing the Republicans' efforts in the Commonwealth."

Snyder appeared at a "We Did Build This" event in Roanoke on July 25 for the Romney campaign. The event was based on Fox's and the Romney campaign's distortion of President Obama's remarks about small businesses. Breitbart.com wrote that Snyder "has been traveling throughout Virginia on Romney's behalf."

Snyder made his contributor debut on Wednesday, where he was introduced as a "Republican strategist and the newest Fox News contributor." Snyder appeared for two segments alongside Wall Street Journal assistant editorial page editor James Freeman and Tara Dowdell, a Democratic strategist and Fox News contributor.

According to a search of Nexis, Snyder has previously appeared on Fox, and other cable outlets, as a Republican strategist for over a decade. During a February 2008 discussion on Hannity & Colmes aboutwhether Hillary Clinton needs to be told to exit the Democratic primary, Snyder remarked: "You know, I think someone is going to have to go out there and take her behind the barn. You know, I grew up in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and that's kind of the term to use for that."

The Washington Examiner's Paul Bedard wrote that Snyder is also considering running for Virginia lieutenant governor and "having a TV job should help boost his name recognition in advance of the race as well as give him a platform to brag on Virginia Republicans."

Snyder joins several other Fox News contributors who also work in an organization -- aside from Fox itself -- that's trying to defeat President Obama. Karl Rove, one of Fox's top political analysts, co-founded and helps run the anti-Obama super-PAC American Crossroads and its affiliated 501(c)(4) Crossroads GPS. Fox News also employs contributors John Bolton and Walid Phares, who are both policy advisers to the Romney campaign.